Fourth to henry i



F. L. FOX. BOAT.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 17.1916- RENEWED MAY 25,192].

1,389,865. PatentedSept. 6,1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

Simw/m F. L. FOX.

BOAT.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 17,1916- RENEVIED MAY 25,192!- 1,389,865. PatentedSept. 6, 1921 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2- Swuvntcva F. L. FOX.

BOAT.

APPLICATION FILED APR.17,I 9i6. RENEWED MAY 25,1921.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK L. FOX, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- IFOURTH TO HENRY I. MEADER, ONE-FOURTH TO DONALD B. PHILLIPS,-ANID ONE-FOURTH TO CHARLES D. DAVIS, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

BOAT.

Application filed April 17, 1916, Serial No. 91,650. Renewed May 25, 1921.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK L. Fox, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Washington, District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Boats, of which the following is a full and clear specification.

This invention has relation to that type of boats in which the speed is increased by delivering and confining under the bottom of the boat a layer or. film of air to thereby tend to raise the boat out of the water and cause it to travel partially on air; and one of the objects of my invention is to provide airgathering flues which will compress the air before it is delivered under the bottom, to thereby materially increase the buoyant ca pacity of the air, as more fully hereinafter set forth.

A further object of my invention is to provide the boat with an outrigger pontoon arrangement to insure proper balancing of the boat, these ontoons being so arranged that as the main hull is raised from the water by increase in speed, the pontoons will be lifted entirely out of contact with the water, thereby greatly decreasing water dra A still further object of my invention is to provide each of these pontoons with means whereby a layer of air is delivered under the bottom thereof in the same manner as with the main hull, thereby still further increasing the buoyancy of the boat.

Another object of my invention is to utilize the means for connecting the pontoons to the main hullto act as air-planes and thus still further increase the buoyancy of the boat, as more fully hereinafter set forth.

A further object of the invention is to employ both an air rudder and a marine rudder and to connect them up to a single steeringmechanism, so that they shall be operable in unison; and a further important feature of my invention is the provision of means whereby the marine rudder may be hoisted out of the water entirely when the boat has attained a speed sufficient to enable it to be steered entirely by the air rudder, thereby materially reducing the water drag on the boat.

In the drawings- Figure 1 is a top plan view illustrating a Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented sept. 6, 1921.

Serial No. 472,577.

boat embodying my novel features in their preferred form;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof; .1

Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section of the boat, the propelling means being removed;

Fig. 4 is a transverse section on the line 44: of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1; i

Fig. 6 is a vertical longitudinal section taken. through one of the pontoons;

Fig. 7 is a transverse section on the line 7-7 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 8 is a detail side elevation of the stern, showing more particularly the means for manipulating the marine rudder;

Fig. 9 is a section on the line 9-9 of Fig. 8;

Fig. 10 is a perspective View of the mechanism for manipulating the air rudder and the marine rudder;

Fig. 11 is a detail vertical section taken through the upper end of the rudder post; and

Fig. 12 is a plan view of one of the pontoons and its connected air-plane detached.

Referring to the drawings annexed by reference characters, at designates an air flue inclining downwardly and rearwardly through the bow end of the main hull, the upper end ofthis flue being shaped to form a forwardly-facing funnel b and the lower end of the flue being contracted to form a nozzle 0 pointing directly rearwardly under the main portion (Z of the bottom of the boat. The flue a and funnel b and nozzle 0 extend approximately the full width of the boat, and the nozzle 0 is smaller in area than the entrance end'of the flue, so that the air that is gathered by the funnel b is com-' compressing fine is shown at a, Z) and c, this rear flue being arranged to ejectthe air it compresses under the rear part d of the bottom, this second air cavity (formed by the bottom part (Z' andthe rear portions of the runners 6) being open at its rear end to permit free escape ofthe air. It is desirable to have the forward cavity (formed by the part (Z of the bottom and the runners e) tapered toward its rear end to thus still further compress the air as the boat advances, and, to accomplish this, I incline the rear end otthe part (Z of the bottom downwardly and terminate it at the point where the rear aircompressing flue discharges the air under the bottom part (Z, this rear extremity of the bottom part (i riding slightly above the lower edges of the runners, so as to avoid forcing the trapped air laterally under the runners. It is desirable also that the forward bottom part (Z shall be formed virtually of a continuation of the top wall of the forward flue a, these two parts being merged into each other on a curved line, thereby reducing air friction to a minimum. The same is done with the rear part 01 of the bottom and the top wall of the. rear flue.

' boat and b fore it is delivered under the boat, whereby the buoyant capacity of the air is greatly increased. it will be understood that the funnel delivers,practically entirely across the bottom of the boat, a continuous stream or layer of air under pres sure, which layer or stream meets the water, as the boat progresses, at the lower edge of the flat nozzle. By thus previously compressing the air, the thinning of the ayer by the compacting client of the water will be materially reduced, thereby keeping the water away'from the bottom of the hull for a longer period than would be the case it the air were delivered under the boatin a non-compressed state, whereby air-Eriction is substituted for hull-friction to a material extent. Another feature of importance is that the nozzle portions c, c of the fines have their exit ends directed directly backwardly and not downwardly, whereby the delivery of the compressed air under the boat is materially facilitated.

Any suitable air propelling mechanism may be employed. I have found in practice that the following arrangement is advantageous:

Secured upon the deck of the main hull and extending in parallelism is a pair of rails 31", each having a plurality of openings 32 arranged therein and adapted to receive bolts 33 by whichthe motor mounting,generally-indicated at 34, may be adjustably connected to the rails. This mot-or mounting may beof any preferred form but generally consists of a double Aframe, the legs of which on each side are connected by a u engaging member 35 and the frames are braced by diagonal struts b6 also adjustably connected to the rails, as shown. By this means of adjustment, the motor which is indicated at 87 may be shifted toward the bow or stern of the boat, as is found expedient and the weight of the operator and passengers thus properly equalized, so as to prevent unevenness of travel. The adjustmen" of the motor also eliminates depression of the bow caused from thrust of the motor. As will be seen, the motor, which has only been generally shown, is connected to the propeller shaft 38 by means of a chain 39, while the shaft 38 carries the usual air pro peller 40 and a starting crank 41.

Connected to the sides of the hull of the beat at the rear end of the boat is a pair of water-tight pontoon hulls 9, supported away from the main hull by wings h rigidly :conncctingthe main hull to the pontoons. The wings 1b are connected to the main hull at a 90 point high enough to prevent them ever restin g on the surface of the water,iand, in order that these wings may act as air-planes and thusassist in lifting the boat out of the water, I shape them, in longitudinal section, in the same manner as an approved aeroplane wing or plane, as clearly shown in Fig. 5.

Each pontoon hull is provided with an aircompressing flue similar in shape and function to the air-compressing lines in the main hull, so that, while the pontoons are riding on thewater, a layer or film of compressed air will be injected under each pontoon, thereby materially adding to the buoyancy of the boat. It will .be observed from Figs.

2 and 7 that the pontoons have their bottoms located at a point above the plane of the bottom of the main hull, so that, when the boatattains a sullicient speed to lift it out of the water a yn'edetermined extent, the pontoons will be entirely out of contact with the surface of the water, whereby the water drag on the boat is greatly diminished. It will be observed, however, that even when the. pontoons are thus lifted entirely away from the surface of the'water, they still serve to assist in balancin the boat.

Any suitable means may be employed to rigidly connect the pontoons and wing planes to the main hull, but I prefer making this rigid connection by means of parallel bars ,4 aliixcd rigidly to the decks of the pontoon hulls and extending horizontally through the wing plane structures and hav- 5 ing their ends rigidly fastened to the deck of the main hull. .L prefer connecting these rods to the main hull by having their ends inserted in open-ended metal tubes 70 fastened in transverse grooves inthe deck of the main hull. The rods are conveniently secured removably in these tubes by vertical bolts Z passing down through the tubes and through the inclosed ends of the rods. This manner of connecting the pontoons and wing planes to the main hull is advantageous in view of its simplicity and rigidity, and also because by simply removing the bolts Z each pontoon with its connected wing plane may be detached from the hull for the sake of compactness in shipping and storing the boat.

For steering the boat, I provide an air rudder m at the bow and a water rudder n at the stern, and I manipulate these two rudders in unison from a single steering shaft 0 mounted preferably in the cock-pit. The air rudder is connected to the steering shaft by a suitable cable p and the marine rudder is connected to the steering shaft by a suitable cable 9, these cables being supported on a suitable pulley arrangement in the hull. The cable 9 is wound around a grooved wheel 1" attached to the upper end of the rudder post 8, this post being journaled in a vertical bearing tube t supported ri idly at the stern of the boat.

he marine rudder is pivoted at its upper forward end on a pivot u mounted between the forward ends of a pair of arms 41 connected rigidly to the lower end of the rudder post. These arms closely hug the rudder blade and serve to resist lateral thrust on the rudder. The pivotal connection of the rudder blade with the arms '0 enables it to be. hoisted out of the water, so that when sufficient speed is attained to enable the boat to be steered by the air rudder alone, the drag of the water rudder may be entirely eliminated. As will be seen, the marine rudder and its supporting parts are so arranged that, when the rudder blade is raised, none of the water steering parts have contact with the water.

The rudder may be raised and held up in any suitable manner, as is obvious. I prefer lifting the same by means of a cable '10 attached to the upper edge of the blade and passing through a tube 0: extending through pulley r, the upper end of this tube terminating directly in line with the axial center of the rudder post, so that by pulling forward on the cable 10, the blade may be readily lifted out of the water at whatever angle it may be adjusted to at the time. The forward end of the cable 'w is carried to the cockpit where it is attached to a lever 1 and this lever is preferably so mounted that when it is swung forwardly and downwardly it will carry the point of connection of the cable w to the lever beyond center, so that the backward pull on the cable will cause the lever to be locked in elevated position. Any other suitable means, however, may be employed for holding the rudder up out of the water.

It will be observed that the bottom sections of the main hull together with the sides and top boards or plates thereof and the air flues a and a convert the main hull into virtually a series or row of three separate pontoons. The advantage of this is that the puncturing or crushing of the hull at any one point will not sink the boat.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A boat having a channel or cavity formed on its bottom and provided with a flue extending through its hull and communicating at its lower end with the forward end of said cavity, this flue being provided at its upper forward end with an air-gathering funnel, said lower discharge end of the flue being restricted in area as compared with the intake end of the flue to thereby compress the air before it is delivered under the oat.

2. A boat having a channel or cavity formed on its bottom and provided with a flue extending through its hull and communicating at its lower end with the forward end of said cavity, this flue being provided at its upper forward end with an air-gathering funnel, said lower discharge end of the flue being restricted in area as compared with the intake end of the flue to thereby compress the air before it is delivered under the boat, the exit end of the flue being in the form of a nozzle facing horizontally rearwardly.

3. A boat having a plurality of cavities formed under its bottom and provided with an air flue for each cavity, each of these air flues extending through the hull of the boat and connected to the forward end of the cavity, the lower exit end of the flue being restricted in area as compared with the intake end to thereby preliminarily compress the air before it is delivered under the boat.

4. In a boat, a main hull; outrigger hulls; and means connecting the main and outrigger hulls, said means being adapted to be acted upon by the air in the movement of the boat to tend to lift the boat out of the water.

5. In combination with a main hull outrigger or pontoon hulls; and means connecting these pontoon hulls with the main hull, said means consisting of air-planes or wings connecting the hull to the pontoon above the load water line.

6. The combination with a main hull, of a pair of outrigger or pontoon hulls, each of which is provided with an air flue extending through the hull and adapted to deliver a body of air underneath the bottom of the hull, for the purpose set forth.

7. The combination with a main hull, of a pair of pontoon or' outrigger hulls; and means connecting the pontoon hulls to the main hull, said means embodying rods affixed to the pontoon hulls and to the deck of the main hull, the connection of the rods to the main hull being separable, said main hull being provided With transverse grooves for the reception of said rods, for the purpose set forth.

8. The combination with a boat of the type set forth, of a steering means therefor embodying an air rudder at the boW and a marinerrudder. at the stern; and means for simultaneously manipulating these rudders, so that they shall cooperate With each other; and means for raising the marine rudder out of the Water to relieve the boat of the drag of the marine rudder when the boat has attained suflicient speed to be guided by the air rudder alone.

9. The combination With a boat of the type set forth, of steering means therefor embodying an air rudder and a marine rudder; and means for raising and holding the ma rine rudder out of the Water to thereby relieve the boat of the drag of the rudder after it has attained sufficient speed to be guided by the air rudder alone.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

FREDERICK L. FOX. 

